[MUD-Dev] Alternative Hit Point Systems?

[Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com]

From: shren [mailto:shren at io.com]

> I've been tinkering with the interesting idea of supplementing hit
> points with a limited ability (number of times per combat) to half
> damage taken after other defenses.  I agree with you that "hit
> points" beg alternatives, but instead of looking for entirely new
> systems I prefer to look for the problems with hit points.  One of
> the biggest problems, in my mind, is balancing combat length.  One
> hit kills are undesirable.  On the other hand, if it takes too
> many hits to kill somebody, then they never die, as they avoid
> that "too many hits" point through healing or retreat.
 
> If you add in, say, 3 automatic halfings of damage when the player
> takes half or more of his current hit points, then you've weakened
> the possibility that the player will die in the first round but
> increased the odds that they'll die in subsequent rounds, which I
> see as a good thing.  Plus, if you give back the free halfings at
> the beginning of each combat, then you have less of a compulsive
> need for constant healing.

This made me think of Halo's life system, which I think is a
beautiful mechanic. For those who have missed out, you have two
health bars in Halo, one is physical health, and the other is your
shield. Physical health can only be regained from health packs,
shield health recharges after about 10 seconds of no damage to the
player. All damage is applied to the shield first, so you only take
physical damage with a fully depleted shield. The beauty of this
mechanic is that you can be in a dire situation with no physical
health, but with skill and tactics you can survive thanks to the
shield.

I'm not sure how well I've described its benefits, but suffice to
say, it works beautifully in the game and removes the boring 'save
before entering a room and reload if you lost health in the
encounter cycle' so common in FPS.  It could probably translate
nicely into a RPG as firstly its meshes nicely with the no saves
aspect, secondly it would narrow pvp'ers window of opportunity to
gank someone after they've just fought and are at low health (which
most would agree is no fun for the victim.

It would require a redefinition of healing skills as I imagine most
wouldn't necessarily be in combat, but thats probably a good thing
anyway.

Thinking further, it would ensure a place for less optimal fighters
in combat. The complaint with non-optimals tanking in current MMOs
(can't comment on MUDS I'm afraid) is that they waste the healers
resources (they take more dmg so cost more to keep up). With a
shield, as long as its sufficient to last out an average single
monster fight it wouldn't be a problem if they stepped up every so
often as no healer involvement would probably be required.

Dan


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